Open Letter to Those Who Ironically Claim Bibi Must Go Because of October 7

Peloni

Elections spawn irresponsible rhetoric and unsubstantiated libels, but the simple truth is that there was plenty of warning available for any reasonable person who was not already decidedly certain that Hamas was not going to attack because they were opportunists rather than ideologues.  This was part of the old Conceptzia which had intelligence warnings being ignored when they should have been acted upon.

As to the story about the UAE, I am convinced that it is a silly fabrication, but the reality is that the entire IDF establishment, the govt, and the military intelligence should have been aware enough based on intelligence reports from months previous to October 7 that the old Conceptzia was a fallacy.
Both the political and military leadership failed the test of seeing the war which was being planned against them in Gaza.  Likewise, they should have had a significant force available and on alert in the days preceding October 7, and for many months before that.  They didn’t.  This was the fault of Bibi and all those in authority both during this period of time, but also during the period in which the old Conceptzia was adopted as that is what caused this disaster.  This impeaches nearly everyone running in the current election.

So the UAE ruse is an attempt by Bibi’s opponents to hide their own culpability for this situation, and the role played Eisenkot in particular as the advocate of the Small Army doctrine and the wider Left’s support for the color revolution supported against the Bibi govt were each essential aspects of that culpability.

Hence, as we are looking to assess who might be the better leader going forward, we must base it not on who missed the warning signs before them, but on who actually acted and supported policies which were either responsible or commendable.  On this test, the military fails miserably as it warned Bibi and the nation, in accordance with US assessments, that disaster was all that faced Israel if she invaded Gaza, seized Rafah, or ultimately refused to surrender to Hamas.  All of these measures were opposed by Bibi, and nearly by himself did he resolve to ignore his own military advisors, his security war cabinet (including Eisenkot) as well as the American military experts.

Bibi’s deference to the US with regards to Gaza has been a disastrous choice, but beyond this sizeable failure, he has consistently mostly made the correct choices in this war, and the estimates of mass slaughters due to his choices have not materialized.  We owe him a great deal, but this should not by itself color the outcome on the next election, as his opponents should be assessed for their support of Bibi’s own adroit helmsmanship at leading the nation in the midst of war.  On that basis alone Bibi should be chosen in the next election.  There is simply no better choice, and in the past three years, Bibi has succeeded to find the right path heading towards victory, which would have been abandoned by any other leadership at the time.

So, if we are to be both honest and responsible, at this point, I would argue that we have no choice but to support the national camp and with Bibi at the head of it.  The wars are not yet over, and the judgement of his opponents have been tainted by just lamentably poor judgement, even as Bibi was himself also responsible for not having abandoned the old Conceptzia in the months before October 7.

In a nutshell, perhaps Bibi should go because of his failures in leading upto October 7 but then so should all the rest of them that were involved in that failure.  Yet, we must nonetheless conclude that Bibi must stay because of all of what he has done in the years following that disaster, in which he was struggling against those who would otherwise be chosen as what I fear will prove to be far worse choices.

Or at least, this is what appears to be a reasonable and fair assessment, at least in my humble opinion.